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French Union Calls for Apple Retail Store Employee Strike Coinciding with iPhone 5 Launch

edk99 said:
Maybe they should lower taxes and reduce government benefits instead of demanding more from companies which in turn jacks up prices of products and services to customers. Then customers go elsewhere and stores close and people get fired. Over taxation is bad. Just look at the 3 largest states in the US. CA, NY and IL. Heavily taxed, heavily unionized and on the bring of bankruptcy.
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They are also rich and subsidize the less successful states.
 
When I was in Paris, I experienced the best strike... ever.

The metro staff went on strike by turning up and operating the trains as normal, but opening up the gates and not taking any payments. Free transport! The perfect way to strike: hitting the employers but not the customers.

Now if you were to do a similar thing in the Apple store, I might need to book me a flight over there...
 
13th month of pay? Thanks a lot, France. You just gave Obama another idea for a vote-getting promise he can't keep.

:mad:
 
I see a lot of people complaining about this.
Fact of the matter is that working conditions are just different in EU rather than in US. I'm sure most of you US people think your way is the correct way.

Consider this though. There was recently an Apple Store launch, first one in Scandinavia, here in Sweden. The employees were cheering and clapping and it was almost like a football-event. In US, this is probably considered normal. For us Swedes(and probably a lot of other Europeans) it was just rather embarrassing and bizarre.

Things are different all around the world, including working conditions. Deal with it.
 
Reelknead1 said:
How about you idiots get back to work and stop complaining. You don't like it go work somewhere else.
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Funny, I just had this same conversation with my employees this morning. One of the told me he was interviewing at a competitor, and another told a colleague that if he didn't get a raise he was going to leave. We have many exit doors at my company. Perhaps I could show you a few!!
 
I've always equated the Apple extremist fanboy to the Republican Party extremists, and this thread absolutely confirms that. :p
 
urbanlung said:
I think you'll find that the US outranks everyone else combined in the the number of people killed by acts of aggression.
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Thanks to Detroit, Flint, and St. Louis (I live here). Top 3 most dangerous cities in the US in 2012...

St. Louis was number 1 back in 2010 :confused:
 
GoldenJoe said:
A thirteenth month of salary?
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Actually more like 14

And how much of that goes right back to the union itself in the form of dues?
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None, for most, it doesnt matter if you are with a union or not. And if you are the fee is something like 10€ a month

Ridiculous. This is why the modern union has to go.
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Thats not the reason but they should reconsider there position at the least, modernise .
 
ps45 said:
France has actually prioritized quality of life, something that other countries could learn from.

Here in the US, we get hardly any vacation days, and the moment there is any spare capacity (a tiny bit less to be done than a company's employees can achieve at full speed) then BAM! pink slips.

Note here that it's not France that is going broke, it's Greece and Spain et al. And the US is not exactly booming right now.

It's all very well chuckling about Europe and suggesting as some cretin did above that they don't get anything done (hello?), but at least over there they are not running themselves ragged with two jobs just to meet payments on junk, and occasionally cracking and going postal with guns.

Hell, instead of mocking them, why don't we demand better pay and more time off with our families?
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I agree with that.
I have lived in France, the USA and Canada for more than 3 years respectively. These countries are great to live in. None of them is perfect.
It would be very difficult for me to decide which is better to live in.
Actually, If I was forced to decide, I would say that France is a special country. It is such a rich country in many aspects.
If you only value money, France may not be for you.
 
urbanlung said:
Unlike the Americans. Which war was it you won, certainly none of the recent ones, despite your world beating expenditure.
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Ah, there's the rub. Our government doesn't go to war to win. They go to war to make civilian contractors from the US rich.

It'd be nice if we actually used our military for something more than a cash machine..

Meh. I'm often embarrassed to be an American citizen. But I'm in the minority.
 
FNi said:
...and the uninformed come out in force...

Things are different here in western Europe. We pay much higher taxes, everything costs a lot more (search for the price of anything and compare it to what we pay) and we end up with a lot less disposable income when compared to a similar job in the US.

As a result of this, we expect a fair trade-off in working conditions.

So yes, some of these things might sound crazy to you guys, but you need to compare it in context.
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The reason you pay much higher tax is your benefits are high , long vacations, 2-3 year unemployment benefits... do we suppose to feel bad for what you created?
 
how do you motivate people working 35 hours including weekends sacrificing their private life with a low wage in compensation with constant pressure for getting positive client feedback, pressure for selling One to One, AppleCare and Joint Venture contracts and now pressure for phone contracts too ?


how would you react if your employer told you that he couldn't do anything about defective air conditioning in your office over the last 2-3 years ?

would you simply bring your own water and keep your mouth shut ?


what do you think about a company that looks cool from the outside, but is not considering its employees well, no recognition, no social ladder, no significant salary raise taking performance into consideration ?
 
dbft said:
Many Americans in this thread seem to be like the stereotype of North Koreans - thinking that the rest of the world must suck and nothing can possibly be better than how they have it.
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Not quite. But if you choose to work for an American company, it is indeed a choice. If you would like to work elsewhere, please leave your job and make room for someone who wants to work there. Same advice I give to my employees.
 
Tones2 said:
I've always equated the Apple extremist fanboy to the Republican Party extremists, and this thread absolutely confirms that. :p
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I'm actually quite surprised by this thread. Guess I shouldn't be, but my hope for a well informed electorate I guess is slowly declining.
 
I am unsure if people are aware of this — France is a place where maximum protests happen in the world. They protest for anything and anytime.

You go to France and if you didn't see a protest, you didn't really go to france!
 
dbft said:
Many Americans in this thread seem to be like the stereotype of North Koreans - thinking that the rest of the world must suck and nothing can possibly be better than how they have it.
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No, I'm pretty sure a 13th month of salary is better than I have. I'm jealous :)
 
cankster said:
Hell. America is right behind them. We have been doing everything in our power to become them. Its Obama's dream.
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Either this topic is bringing out the conservative minded posters, or MR's posters are mostly conservative. Now I'm suddenly interested in doing a poll and seeing whether the MR forum goers lean one way or the other, politically. (I'm voting MR 2012 - Mitt Romney, mind you, not MacRumors, although I'm sure Arn would make a great US president.)

On topic, I agree with them on the water fountains. Those strike me as essential for any area other than home that I'll be staying more than 3-4 hours at. So work and school. Is it worth striking over? Not really; you're getting paid, after all.
 
kmv2012 said:
I really feel sorry for all you Americans who has such dumb things to say to this post.
You have very few unions - ergo your working rights suck pretty much everywhere. The average middle class European has a higher quality of living than the average American, because of the things you call socialism (or what some of you think is communism). Health care, paid vacation (so we dont have to work our selves to death), pension and unions, who negotiate our wages so we arent screwed by the companies we work for.

If Apple cant comply with French law, then they should close their stores in France. Period. Its the same thing with the warranty troubles in Italy.

So grow up and stop being affraid of a communist Europe that has never, and will never be.

You make your fellow countrymen look bad.
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The middle class in Europe does not have as high a standard of living as the middle class in America. Not even close. You might be happier though, and thats what really counts so......
 
SeattleMoose said:
Forgot the free baguette, wine, and cheese for all employees while they "work".

No wonder the French lost every war they ever fought in the last 150 years.

They are SOFT!!!!
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Are you from an alternative universe where France lost WW1?
Mind filling us in on the timeline.
 
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